1. Winter
Weekly
Reader
Volume 57, Issue 119, February 27, 2014
UPCOMING
MEETINGS
February 27
Carol Mitchel “Truth About Hypnosis.”
March 6
Tuff Yen “The Truth about Shark Tank
TV Show: Should we Believe
What we see on TV?”
March 13
Darren Collins“The Coterie Connection”
March 20
Mayor Henry LaRosilliere“State of the City”
Earnest’s Follies
W
E had more visitors for this
Black History Month
program than at whom you
could shake a stick. (“Ending a sentence with
Davis, Maribelle
McLean, Lynne
Kramer, Jason
Israel, Cary
Oliver, Karla
Dean, Doyle
McGee, Jim
Fuller, Dennis
Henry, Chris
Moebius, Carrolyn
Parker, John
Walters, Kyle
Feb 01
Feb 01
Feb 07
Feb 10
Feb 13
Feb 19
Feb 20
Feb 22
Feb 23
Feb 27
Feb 27
Feb 27
The latter included Helen Macey (Plano
West), Ed Williams (Dallas), and PPD Chief
Greg Rushin (Sunrise).
a preposition is a violation up with which I will
not put.” —Winston Churchill) In fact, there
were so many that Sainted
Editor has to curtail his
naturally loquacious nature so as to make room on
page 3 for the entire list!
However, he didn’t curtail
his politically incorrect
nature; instead he chastised the gathering of the
City’s Africa American elite
for failing to have representation on the
Multicultural Outreach Roundtable,
a hybrid grassroots/Citysponsored
organization
dedicated to civic action
in and of the ethnic communities.
It struck a
nerve in Earl Simpkins
who
volunteered
to
strengthen the liaison.
(Thanks, Earl!)
FEBRUARY
BIRTHDAYS
The Plano Rotary Club
www.PlanoRotary.com
Captain Kirk opened the program
at 12:11, conjuring up DG Ean Secret Santa
Sullivan for the Prayer, anointing Scary Bob
Epstein for the Pledge, and thanking Janis
Allman for Greeting. Then he passed to
gavel to Earnest Burke.
Earnest passed an onerous challenge to
sergeant barbera to introduce the multitude of guests as well as Visiting Rotarians.
Kirk welcomed Mike McCullough,
Lori Phantom Crotchetienne Roberts introduced
Dennis Luellen (Frisco), and Karla Oliver bade us welcome two guests, Leslie
Range-Stanton and André Davidson.
nathan excused Myrtle Hightower
from the recitation of all her guests and took
on the task himself. The list was alphabetical so, for example, Candidate Glenn and
ex-City Councilman Jean Callison preceded ex-Mayor Pat Evans who came before
ex-Mayor and ex-Senator Florence Shapiro who herself preceded sitting Representative Van Taylor!
But the really important guests were the
representatives of the Black Community,
and they were too numerous to list here. See
the list on page 3. They included PISD
Board Trustee Marilyn Hinton, Collin
County Republican Party Chairman Fred
Moses and wife Mazzie, Bernard and
Bessie Coffer (left of Helen Macey above),
Ben Thomas’ daughter, Dollie, Director of
continued on page 2

2. Human Resources for PISD, Reedy
Spigner’s children, April and James,
Earl’s wife Barbara and mother Alice,
Don and Evelyn McKnight, Adolphus
and Maria Sprott, and Cowboy’s #88
Drew Pearson, among many others.
nathan opted to forgo Inside the
Rotarian Studio in favor of the awarding of the LAST
PLACE Trophy for Plano Rotary Club Fantasy Football
which was shared by Coach Gerald Brence and Ben
Criste. They received a copy of Fantasy Football for
Dummies!
February’s PRC Social was announced for next (last as
you read this) Tuesday at LOCKHART Smoke House.
Cautioning us to silence our cell
phones, Earnest announced the availability of seats and tables at (last) Saturday’s 5810 Gala, REVEALED, A MASQUERADE BALL.
Sainted Editor
donned his regalia, brought a wizard’s
staff and Venetian mask, and came as a
sort of a Gay Gandalf! (Ian McKellen,
who played Gandalf in the films, would have
approved.)
Dennis Luellen promised to come to Club someday
without an announcement of donation opportunities, but it
wouldn’t be today! We were told of a Car Raffle being offered to benefit the Boys and Girls Club of Collin County.
See http://www.bgccc.org/cart/poker.asp
Earnest began the Program
with an acknowledgement of
the efforts made by the City of
Plano to recognize Black History and MLK. He referred to
Myrtle as his mentor and had
chosen as this program’s theme
CELEBRATING
CIVIL
RIGHTS
AFTER
FIVE
DECADES. He opened the
program by inviting Plano Senior High School Past President and current meadowlark,
W.T. Greer, to sing the Lord’s Prayer to a standing ovation by an appreciative audience. At its conclusion, Earnest surmised, “If that didn’t get you movin’, you must be
dead!”
Then he introduced Derek Brooks, the Choirmaster
at Plano Senior High who had brought his Chamber Singers from the school to sing two Negro Spirituals: This Little
Light of Mine and Jeremiah to another standing ovation.
Earnest praised PISD for its “engagement with youth.”
He marveled at its “passion for students to achieve,” and
prayed that it “would continue throughout history.” He
continued that “through education comes understanding,”
and “through understanding comes love.” He quoted First
Corinthians 13:13 as (So now Faith, Hope, and Love abide, these three,) “but the greatest of these is Love. For those
of you who know what that means.” He urged us “to go
outside your comfort zone and become more understanding, then more loving” and “the world becomes a better
place.”
W.T. tag-teamed him to comment
(of the choir) how he was “only slightly
bitter” for being reminded just “how
long ago I graduated.” He told us that
when a painter looks at a scene, he sees
difficulty. A great artist sees instead
opportunity. God, the Greatest Artist,
looks at Man and, deciding that white is
boring, creates People of Color. He apologized for “stumbling around;” he’d only been asked to present yesterday.
Earnest looked at his shoes.
W.T. mentioned meeting “amazing Black people” like
“Oprah, and I was summoned by Nelson Mandela,
who said <British accent> ‘Pleasure to meet you!’” And “we
love President Obama regardless of our appreciation”
of his policies. He included in that list LaShon Ross,
Asst. City Mgr., Ed Drain, Asst. Police Chief, Arthur
Young, Postmaster of Plano, and Shirley Neal.
He said that he loves to visit the beach, not, of course,
because he “needs a tan,” but because it’s beautiful. He
puts a “foot in the water then thinks, ‘Let’s go eat!’”
W.T. had the honor of telling us that Myrtle Hightower
has been voted 2013’s Plano Citizen of the Year. But he
thinks the title “Queen” is more appropriate. Then he introduced “Doc” Gibbs to sing “A Change Gonna Come.”
At its conclusion, he said that “we appreciate one another
in rooms like this whatever color the Great Artist decided
to make you.”

3. Plano Rotary Club
Board of Directors
2013-2014
Earnest introduced Brig.
Genl. Leon Johnson (U.S. Air
Force, ret.) to “finish what he’d
started” at last year’s program.
(But Genl. Johnson confided to
Sainted Editor that, giving his talk in
10 minute segments, it will take six
years to finish.) As National Pres-
ident of the Tuskegee Airmen,
Inc., he’d be expected to speak
about them, but his talk today was of other significant Blacks.
He told us of Eugene Bullard, the first Black
to be a fighter pilot, not for the U.S., but for France
in WWI as part of the Lafayette Flying Corps. He
later married a French Countess and opened a
night club overseas. He fled to the U.S. to escape
the Nazis after a second career with the French
Underground. He was found by French President
Charles DeGaulle working as an elevator operator! France awarded him the Legion of Honor.
Bessie Coleman was the first licensed Black
pilot, again in France in 1921. Although killed in a
stunt flying accident, a flying school was opened in
her honor.
And the Tuskegee Airmen weren’t all fighter
pilots. Some were navigators, others bombardiers.
Indeed, they occupied all of the jobs necessary to
run an air corps. Of their 992 number, 355 fought
in Europe. The rest were part of a B-52 bomber
wing that was scheduled for the Pacific when the
War concluded. But they were instrumental in the
development of Civil Rights when they were almost court-martialed for attempting to integrate
an Officers’ Club. President Truman issued an
Executive Order to end segregation in the Armed
Forces. And in 2008, they were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.
Kathleen Johnson was a computer operator
for NASA who was assigned to an otherwise all-
male pool of mathematicians where “no woman
had gone before.” She calculated Alan Shepard’s orbital trajectory, and had verified John
Glenn’s orbital path when the computer’s version
was questioned. In 1969, she computed the Apollo
trajectories and created star maps for the astronauts. A cartoon depicting a lost astronaut has
Houston telling him, “Kathleen suggests you look
down.”
Genl. Johnson showed us “a picture of diversity in America” in a photo of the 17 slain members
of the U.S.S. Cole, hit by “homicide bombers” in
the Gulf of Aden on 12 October 2000. Those killed
had died to “defend a dream” of Freedom.
Thanking Genl. Johnson, Earnest called on “Doc” Gibbs who
asked, “You’re President next
year? Wow! I’m not worthy.
And the Citizen of the Year will
carry a bigger whip next year.”
Myrtle had asked Doc to play a
medley of tunes representing the
50 years of Civil Rights. So he told us “we’ll get
out of here about midnight.”
Doc took it by decades. The 60s were characterized by “My Girl” with audience participation.
The 70s heard “I Will Survive.” The 80s saw “Celebration.” Whitney Houston represented the
90s with “I Will Always Love You.” And, in the
90s, Beyoncé suggested, “Put a Ring on It.” Finally, kicking off a shoe, he played Myrtle’s favorite, “Down Home Blues.”
Earnest awarded “the coveted” Rotary clock to
Genl. Johnson, Doc Gibbs, Myrtle (taking it down to
her), and to W.T. Greer, who thought aloud, “Y’all
are so easily excited.”
And with a call-and-response recitation of our
beloved Four-Way Test, the congregation was
dismissed at 1:17 to go out and spread the Gospel of
Rotary.
Guests & Visiting Rotarians
Guest
Mike McCullough
Dennis Luellen
Leslie Range-Stanten
Andre Davidson
Liz Loveless
April Spigner
James Spigner
Linda Bass
Sharon Bradley
Mr. Burgess
Glen Callason
Jean Callason
Bernard Coffer
Bessie Coffer
Isabel Cottrell
Florence Shapiro
Alice Simpkins
Barbara Simpkins
Maria Sprott
Guest Of
Kirk Bell
Lori Roberts
Karla Oliver
Karla Oliver
John Caldwell
Reedy Spigner
Reedy Spigner
Myrtle Hightower
Myrtle Hightower
Myrtle Hightower
Myrtle Hightower
Myrtle Hightower
Myrtle Hightower
Myrtle Hightower
Myrtle Hightower
Myrtle Hightower
Myrtle Hightower
Myrtle Hightower
Myrtle Hightower
Guest
Autry Daniel
Ted Dickey
Pat Evans
Marilyn Hinton
Trudy Isreal
James Jone
Mary Beth King
Dave King
Kathy Kuddis
Gail Lewis
Don McKnight
Evelyn McKnight
Fred Moses
Pat Neal
Wendy Phynes
Aldolpus Sprott
Van Taylor
Dollie Thomas
Guest Of
Myrtle Hightower
Myrtle Hightower
Myrtle Hightower
Myrtle Hightower
Myrtle Hightower
Myrtle Hightower
Myrtle Hightower
Myrtle Hightower
Myrtle Hightower
Myrtle Hightower
Myrtle Hightower
Myrtle Hightower
Myrtle Hightower
Myrtle Hightower
Myrtle Hightower
Myrtle Hightower
Myrtle Hightower
Myrtle Hightower
AWARDS:
2013 Citizen of the Year
Dr. Myrtle Hightower
Huffines Auto Dealerships
Huffines Auto Dealerships
New Member Proposal
Proposed member: Edward J. Williams
Classification: Retired
Proposed By: Bradley Keith
Proposed member: Mike McCullough
Classification: Men’s Salon
Proposed By: Kirk Bell
President
Kirk Bell
President Elect
Earnest Burke
Secretary
Karla Oliver
Treasurer
Ben Criste
Past President
Lynn Schwartz
Sergeant at Arms
Nathan Barbera
Membership Chair
Pam Little
Membership Vice Chair
Jayson Killough
Service Chair
Larry Bisno
Service Vice Chair
David Bowman
Public Relationship Chair
Mary Jo Dean
Public Relationship Vice Chair
Camille Ussery
Club Admin Chair
David McWhorter
Club Admin Vice Chair
John Parker
Foundation Chair
Gary Basham
Foundation Vice Chair
Alan Feigenbaum
New Generation Chair
Rick Horne
At Large
Robert Epstein
Lori Roberts
Susan Shuler
Bill Wray
Bob Pikna
Kyle Walters
Alex Johnson
Business Secretary
Lynette Pieper
Bulletin Editor
Chris Parr
Bulletin Photographer
Robert Epstein
Bulletin Designer
Marsha Pigg
Alphagraphics
Printing by Alphagraphics
Park & Coit
The Plano Rotary Club
PO BOX 864316
Plano, TX 75086

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